The Pick-Up Artist

Posted by Maggie August 10th, 2007 at 10:08am In Guilty Pleasures

I am not being at all ironic when I say everyone should watch VH1’s new show, The Pick-Up Artist. Yes, it is funny (it is, after all, hosted by a man named Mystery and his two wing-men J-Dog and Matador), and it is slightly gross (the aim is to get a bunch of losers laid), but it is fascinating.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before my love of the book The Game by Neil Strauss. In it, Strauss, a freelance writer (he wrote this and this, among other things), immerses himself in the somewhat underground world of professional pick-up artists, eventually becoming a master PUA (as they say) himself. There are also lots of celebrity anecdotes. Mystery was a big character in Strauss’s book, one of the “experts” he eventually befriended.

The book is addictive. Watching the show is like watching some of the ideas outlined in the book in action, which makes it pretty addictive, too. (Queasy, sometimes. I am not saying that being a professional PUA is a noble or worthwhile endeavor. I’m just saying it’s interesting — partly for the very reasons it makes you queasy.)

If you read the book, it becomes clear that these guys have not just found clever, insidious ways to seduce people, they’ve managed to define very specific ways that people relate to one another. They examine the body language, the reactions of the group you’re talking to, the ways to keep a conversation going. Yes, they are using this knowledge to cold-heartedly seduce — but it’s still an insightful look at human psychology.

I realized while watching The Pick-Up Artist that what Mystery is doing, in essence, is teaching men how to be better, more interesting people. Don’t be a creep. Don’t scare people away. Stop being so annoying. Always have something interesting to say. Even knowing that Mystery and his pals are manipulating the conversation, I would MUCH rather talk to them than any one of the pathetic contestants on the show, just because they actually seem like they have something to say.

Apparently the only way to get these dweebs to become better people is to tell them they’re going to get laid as a result. Well, whatever works.